Normal Level of Tang Aggresion?

[Zenchi]

Good morning-

I have a 210g reef tank which has a purple tang (3.5") and a yellow tang (2"). We had originally introduce those two together along with a hippo tang which unfortunately came to us sick and didn't make it.

These two get along fine with the purple being the clear boss. We found a larger hippo available (5") and found this to be our best chance at reintroducing a hippo as it was a larger and more docile tang. When introduced, we used an acclimation box as well as the mirror trick which worked like a charm on the purple tang.

Once the mirror is removed, it seems territory bickering is occurring. With purple being the instigator, both are flashing their little scalpels when trying to occupy the same area within the tank. No punctures seem to have occurred and neither chase the other. To me this seems like they're just establishing their hierarchy and territory but I just want to confirm.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[Doctorgori]

”Normal tang aggression” is sorta a oxymoron ... Is it mostly purple on yellow violence?
And a 6ft tanks seems plenty big enough ... I dunno, I’ve always had a foxface with my tangs, the two species seem to communicate socially with each other and the foxface always seems to be the leader...
I duuno; this Could Easily be bad advice, but maYbe add a 4th “Tang type” Of a different genera to spread aggression, looks like you got the room

 

[Zenchi]

”Normal tang aggression” is sorta a oxymoron ... Is it mostly purple on yellow violence?
And a 6ft tanks seems plenty big enough ... I dunno, I’ve always had a foxface with my tangs, the two species seem to communicate socially with each other and the foxface always seems to be the leader...
I duuno; this Could Easily be bad advice, but maYbe add a 4th “Tang type” Of a different genera to spread aggression, looks like you got the room

There's no purple on yellow violence surprisingly. Just the purple and hippo. Hippo is new but bigger so it seems like they're trying to establish whose going to be the boss fish in the tank. Its only been 24 hours so I'll likely give it some time so long as no fish seem to be in danger. They haven't punctured one another at all. I did readd the mirror to take a little stress off the situation for a bit and as I'm a bit tied up with work and unable to monitor the tank as closely for the next few hours.